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A Night of Firsts

A rockin’ hot band

A couple of good friends

An experimental drink (named for the rockin’ hot band)

Mexican inspired snacks, including homemade guacamole

Guacamole wrestling by roller derby girls

Oh yea, we were set for an excellent evening.

Every few weeks my friends and I try to get together and cut loose a little.  As we have gotten older, this usually includes a nap during the day sometime, but we can still shake our righteous booties and keep up with beat…mostly.

This past Saturday was to be a fairly normal, at least for us, evening out.  One of the good friend’s husband is the drummer for the rockin’ hot band and the other’s husband has been working photography shoots with both the band and the roller derby girls so we had plenty of reasons to go out and support both of these groups, not to mention it sounded like a really good time.

We gathered first at my place.  It has become a bit of a tradition for us to get together before going out so we can talk, eat, do a little pre-drinking, some make-up and just have some laughs before we hit the bar.  Honestly, some times that’s my favorite part.

For this night I was going with the whole Mexican theme as we were going to a Mexican bar for the rest of the night’s excitement.  We’ve gone there plenty of times before.  Nice place, pretty clean, very little drama, decent dance floor, over all I give it 7 highballs out of 10.  They have a couple signature drinks as well so that makes it a bit more fun too.

I decided to try my hand at homemade fresh guacamole, as I have discovered a bit of an addiction to this tasty treat over the past year, and homemade pita chips.  Both were successful (pat on the back for myself) and we had veggies with chipotle ranch dip that I bought.  (Hey, gimme a break, I made the guacamole didn’t I?)  I really like putting together new combinations of alcoholic beverages as well and I have to say, most of them have been successful (another pat on the back, I know) and the night seemed to call for something special so, yep, put on the old thinking drinking cap and mixed up a Screamin’ Lou in honor of the band the Screamin’ Lous and the Blood Blisters.  (don’t blame me, I didn’t name the band)  The drink turned out pretty tasty although only 1 of the 3 that I tried actually lit up.  I think I was too afraid of the 151 rum; that will take more practice.

So far this had been a pretty normal Saturday Going Out Night for us all.  It would NOT remain that way.

New Thing #1:  The 3 on 1 Pick Up or I’m Too Picky

The three of us ladies were sitting at the bar getting a mild drink (the Screamin’ Lous were pretty potent and we are old enough now to know limits and the dangers of pushing them) and chatting while the wrestling and the band were getting set up.  I noticed a good looking guy kinda eyeballing the 3 of us, which was nice.  It’s always a kick to be noticed.  He didn’t actually talk to any of us but he told the bartender to buy us each a drink.  That was sweet.  He came over again a little later to get other drink and we thanked him, introduced ourselves and, naturally, chatted about him when he left.  Let’s just say I was thinking there was some potential there.  About an hour later I see he’s standing right next to me at the railing waiting for the next wrestling match so we started chatting.  He pointed at one of my girl friends and asked if that was her boyfriend she was talking to, so we had the obligatory “she’s married to him and she’s married to him” talk.  Now I’m thinking, crap, wasn’t interested in me anyway.  Then he asks about my husband, ok, cheered up a bit.  Said the only husband I had was the “ex” variety.  This led into his story of almost divorced because she took pictures of herself cheating on him, they have 2 kids both under 10 and the whole time he’s talking I keep thinking, no way Jose…too much baggage for me.  Funny how they get less attractive the more they open their mouths, doncha think?  There were no regrets in letting that fish swim right back out to sea, thank you very much.

New Thing #2:  Guacamole Wrestling…Only Not

The local roller derby team was there doing a fund raiser for the night and part of the festivities was suppose to be the girls wrestling in guacamole.  Sounds fun, right?  Well, apparently making that much guacamole didn’t work so the kitchen whipped up some corn starch and water combination for the girls.  The girls spent about 20 minutes just sliding back and forth, posing for pictures and keeping the goop on the move.  Once the actually wrestling started the corn starch went a-flyin!  Anyone who was the least bit close to the railing got nailed by corn starch glop, and it stayed on our clothes all night.  I’m not going to say what it looked like because I know there is potential for younger people to read this (yea right, I know only 4 people follow this but better safe than sorry) but I can say it looked like the party we’d been to was waaaay wilder than the truth.  By the end of the evening, after 3 matches and much drying time, the wall, seat cushions, floor, railing and almost everything else had a coating of dry flaky corn starch firmly attached. 

This led to….

New Thing #3:  Cleaning Up and Wiping Down

Around 1am, after most of the fun and excitement was over for the evening, although the band was still going strong, we saw 1 of the roller derby girls with a pail of water and a cloth trying to clean up as much of the corn starch mess as she could.  As the guilt kicked in (since we knew the girls and felt somewhat territorial about the whole night) my friend and I went up to get rags and we ended up scrubbing corn starch off multiple surfaces while working around people and doing a little bootie shake now and then to the band.  First time I’d ever cleaned up in a bar and that was compounded by the fact that people were still partying while we were cleaning.  Have to admit, not really looking forward to repeating that particular part of the evening.

New Thing #4:  Was That a Fight?

I have known 1 of my friend’s has a temper and does not hesitate to stand up for something if she feels strongly about it.  I find this an admirable quality, as well as a dangerous one.  One of the best things I have ever learned in all of my years of working with kids and going to conferences was from Brian Mendler.  He encouraged us to be Second to the Last Word-ers.  Brilliant!  If you can school yourself to let someone else have the last word, the argument ends.  Say anything you want inside your head but if you can step back and recognize that what you are about to say will not help at all and will only make whatever situation worse, then don’t say it.  Sounds so simple, but it’s actually very hard.  Had even 1 person done this Saturday night, everything would have ended.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  The last word-it is was strong in everyone to the point where the lead singer from the band ended up rocketing out the back door and tackling another guy to the ground.  You might say all hell broke loose.  3 bouncers and the owner came out and it was over pretty quickly but it was exciting to say the least.  This was the first time I had ever witnessed an argument go so far as to physical violence and I have to say, I hope to not have to see it again in my lifetime, although I was pretty impressed with some of the folks who were instrumental in ending the fight and keeping it from starting back up again.

So, that was my night of firsts; many of which I can say I hope to not have happen again.  Does this mean I wish Saturday night hadn’t happened?  Of course not.  Any time I get to hang out with my girls, do a little dancing and cut loose is good for me.